Open Forum: The New World of Work: The Unraveling of Scale

June 28, 2018

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Revolutionary developments in the late 19th century—steam, electricity, and the combustion engine—enabled the factory, spawning an entire century of the scaling up of businesses of all types. With the new economy and its incredible accompanying opportunities, there was also backlash that eventually led to WWI and, soon afterward, the Great Depression.

Today we see the beginnings of a ground-shaking new wave of developments, with artificial intelligence as the primary driver but also genomics, blockchain, 3D printing, nanotechnology, virtual reality, and more, coming of age. It no longer requires a big, mass-market entity to leverage these technologies, thus opening up competition to small, focused and nimble companies and individuals.

Stretching ahead of us seems to be a significant new period that will take apart the scaling of the 20th century and put the economy together in a new way. If this is true, what are the implications for innovation and economic growth, in fields such as energy, healthcare, media, consumer products? What will be the opportunities? On the flip side, we are already seeing unrest, from backlash against monopoly giants to worries about jobs, careers, immigration, etc. What does that look like in the future if we are actually going through greater social change than we are now? How in society do we manage our way through this to curb upheaval and shepherd the best outcomes?

Speakers

SriSatish Ambati, CEO and Co-founder, H2O.aiLarry Downes, Project Director, Georgetown Center for Business and Public PolicyHemant Taneja, Managing Director, General Catalyst; Co-author, Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts Are Creating the Economy of the FutureModerator: Kevin Maney, Award-winning Author & Columnist; Co-author, Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts Are Creating the Economy of the Future